Branding Your Blog

You must have noticed by now that this blog has had a major makeover. The changes are a result of conversations that I’ve been having with my friend Mike over at Twenty Steps.

He brought to my attention there was some confusion over my blog’s brand that needed my immediate attention. As a result I have made a few (big) changes that I think are positive and should hopefully rectify the problem.

I also thought that by discussing it here it could be a learning experience for all of my readers so you can learn from my mistakes as you brand your own blog.

The major problem with this blog was the identity of the brand. As you know my blog persona is “Blog Bloke“. Many years ago I created Blogbloke.com, but along the way I suffered a health problem which put my blogging on hiatus.

So I changed the blog into a newsfeed site which has now since become TECHBloke. It has become a popular source of information for my readers and was nominated for a best blog about blogging award.

Since changing the original blog I decided to leave it as is and start a new blog for my personal blog. Hence, InstaBloke was born.

But after talking to Mike I soon realized that I had to clarify my brand for this blog. I was reminded my brand really is “Blog Bloke” but it wasn’t being reflected in this blog and was therefore confusing to the public.

Our conversations helped me to get my perspective and realize all the more that I had to re-brand this blog to reflect my brand “Blog Bloke“ to avoid any more confusion.

Subsequently I created a web 2.0 style logo for “Blog Bloke“ to reinforce the brand. Just like my blog site design, I never contract work out. I like to challenge myself and learn new things so I had to brush up on my Photoshop skills.

I am also in the process of migrating the original blogbloke.com url over to this blog. That will of course cause headaches of it’s own because I could lose valuable backlinks if it’s not done correctly. So I am doing this slowly to avoid making any more mistakes than I already have.

Another suggestion Mike made that I liked was since I’m writing semi-anonymously it would be a great idea to make a caricature of myself and give the old geezer an extreme image makeover. I’ve always wanted to do that and hence, the very cool Wee-Bloke was born which you will now find in the right-sidebar.

What’s the moral of this story?

Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistakes that I’ve made. In the early stages of planning your blog have a clear idea of what your vision is and make certain that your brand is obvious and correctly describes your niche. It also helps to avail yourself with ideas from your blog friends to keep your perspective.

There are still more changes coming down the pipeline but all in all I’m quite pleased with the results.What do you think? Does it look any good or have I missed the mark (again).

P.s.: I should also thank my 11 year old daughter. She is the last word on any changes that I make to the design and I highly value her keen eye for aesthetics and detail. Thanks for the blog tips sweety. You’re my number #1 Blokester.

She has been using computers before she could walk and Daddy’s little girl. She will also be starting her own blog shortly showcasing her amazing artistic talents (as soon as the old man has time to get around to helping her with it :).

Further reading: Characteristics of Online Branding.

Filed under: Blog Design Tips, Blog Tips, Blogging for Business, New Media, Site News blog branding, blog niche, blog tip, Blogger, blogging tips, social networking, web 2.0